As School Year Begins, US Jews Oppose Trump’s Targeting of Colleges and Students
By The Undersigned Individuals on September 10, 2025

(September 10, 2025) — As the new academic year begins, more than 100 prominent Jewish Americans have signed a statement released today voicing strong opposition to the Trump administration’s policy of “disingenuously” using accusations of antisemitism to facilitate attacks on colleges and the detention and deportation of campus activists.
“We write, specifically, as Jewish Americans who condemn the charge of antisemitism being leveled against student activists – many of whom are Jewish – for their legitimate criticisms of Israel’s violence in Gaza and their universities’ connections to the Israeli occupation,” the statement says. (The statement is below; current list of signers here.)

The diverse list of signers includes Jewish activists, authors, academics, rabbis, artists and attorneys, as well as Jewish leaders of progressive organizations. Among the signers are author Ariel Dorfman; Wesleyan University President Michael Roth; UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky; legal scholar Marjorie Cohn; Middle East expert Phyllis Bennis; Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen; academics Aviva Chomsky, David N. Myers and Judith Butler; filmmakers James Schamus and Robert Greenwald; LA Weekly founder Jay Levin; journalists Peter Beinart, Maya Schenwar and Dave Zirin; and artists Molly Crabapple, Eric Drooker and Peter Kuper.

The statement opposes “how the Trump administration disingenuously uses accusations of antisemitism to wage an assault on American higher education and on the ability of scholars to pursue research and knowledge independent of government interference.”

It continues: “We also write to remind our fellow Jewish Americans that the weapons the Trump administration now wields against political dissidents – public humiliation, state persecution, expulsion and deportation – are the very same that Jews have suffered from at various points in history.”

For more information, contact:
Sam Rosenthal sam@rootsaction.org
Alan Minsky alan@pdamerica.org
Jeff Cohen jcohen@ithaca.edu

U.S. Jews Opposing Trump’s
Disingenuous Claims of Antisemitism
to Attack Colleges and Deport Students

We, the undersigned, stand in opposition to the Trump administration’s targeting of college students and professors whose only “crimes” are exercising their First Amendment rights.

We write, specifically, as Jewish Americans who condemn the charge of antisemitism being leveled against student activists – many of whom are Jewish – for their legitimate criticisms of Israel’s violence in Gaza and their universities’ connections to the Israeli occupation. That this accusation is being used as a pretext to abrogate students’ rights to free speech, and to deport non-citizen students, should raise the highest level of alarm.

We also oppose how the Trump administration disingenuously uses accusations of antisemitism to wage an assault on American higher education and on the ability of scholars to pursue research and knowledge independent of government interference.

We also write to remind our fellow Jewish Americans that the weapons the Trump administration now wields against political dissidents — public humiliation, state persecution, expulsion and deportation — are the very same that Jews have suffered from at various points in history. It is imperative that we stand on the frontlines in opposing this wanton assault on civil liberties and the right to dissent. We should know history well enough to understand that such curtailment of individual freedoms will not stop here.

We are aware of the danger inherent in an administration full of people comfortable using antisemitic tropes while using purported anti-antisemitism as a cudgel to attack free speech, the most sacrosanct of American values.

We, as Jewish Americans, reaffirm our support for free speech and independent scholarship. We wholeheartedly condemn these heinous and anti-democratic policies of the Trump administration.

This statement was initiated by Jewish individuals in leadership positions at RootsAction, Progressive Democrats of America and Jewish Voice for Peace. All of the 120+ initial signers endorsed the statement as individuals, not as representatives of any organizations or institutions. http://rootsaction.org